


After the End

by IndigoInsane



Series: After the End [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Feels, M/M, Post-Games
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-25
Updated: 2014-03-20
Packaged: 2017-12-16 04:28:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/857790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IndigoInsane/pseuds/IndigoInsane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Right after the reapers are destroyed the Normandy picks up a signal from where they left Shepard. Kaidan and the others rush to where it's coming from.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

At first Kaidan thought he was still in denial that the man who obsessively bought and cared for every fish he came across and insisted on a specially designed habitat for a hamster he never bothered to name had just saved the universe. Or that the same man wasn't allowed to survive. Overwhelmingly Kaidan couldn't understand that he had lived alongside the rest of the Normandy's crew even as they were forced to let Shepard go alone.

So many things were trying to force their way into comprehension that at first Kaidan stood completely still watching the reapers disintegrate in front of him. It took a solid punch in the shoulder from Vega to snap everything into focus and Kaidan can actually hear it. Commander Shepard is alive. The entire right side of his torso feels like it's on fire because Vega can't keep away from the weights but that's nothing compared to the trembling in his fingers and pressure in his chest.

"Let's go," someone says it, maybe even Kaidan, but it doesn't matter because Joker already has the ship burning fuel and Cortez is running to prep the shuttle with everyone following him. And it is everyone; people Kaidan swears have never left the bridge are pushing each other aside to follow their Commander. Luckily no one is getting in front of Garrus and whoever is closest behind him. Liara gripped his hand when they run out of the elevator and Kaidan nearly jumps out of his skin before realizing that they're almost there.

It's on all their Omni-tools, the unsteady pulse fluctuating between barely there and near silence that's leading them into the ruins of the tower. No one wastes time, biotics starting using lift and pull while everyone starts directing the hordes of people that are showing up. Instead of weeks of months it's only taking seconds but of course it's still a mad rush. Even with the sounds of running, lifting and yelling every Omni-tool is still overpowering in there increased moments of silence.

And it's such a cliché that Kaidan is the one to find him that he pauses in disbelief before letting himself fall to his knees. Miraculously not crushed under the weight of concrete rubble Kaidan kneels down and sees the slight rise and fall of his chest and where his Omni-tool is hastily connected to an engineer's enhanced radio output. Kaidan's willing to bet there's a medi gel ignored somewhere within reach. "It's Shepard," says a faraway voice in awe and of course Kaidan knows that. Beat to hell and barely alive but still the same person that would watch Kaidan cook as if he was performing an amazing feat of sorcery.

Kaidan's brief moment alone with Shepard is over but it's worth it so many times over to be crammed in the back of a medic shuttle to the closest thing to a hospital they have. The galaxy was just saved and it's finally starting to feel like it for Kaidan.


	2. Chapter 2

There are so many people streaming in and out of Shepard’s room that Kaidan finds it hard to believe it when Liara says she’s using her connections to filter people out. After three days Garrus is the first to ask Hackett about limiting visitors and Kaidan agrees until it’s pointed out it’s better to get as many people through before Shepard is awake. Definitely the better idea because no matter how exhausted he is it’s going to be near impossible to keep Shepard resting without a never ending stream of people.

So Kaidan sits in the corner, first in a field hospital near London, then Sur’Kesh and eventually the moved and rebuilding Citadel. It’s constant and more than once Kaidan wishes he and the rest of the Normandy family could trust someone else or the current security because of how personal the words are. He tries to be unassuming in the long hours he’s there but still ends up taking in every word in the hope Kaidan will be able to relay even a tenth of it.

Occasionally it’s someone from the Normandy that visits and Kaidan enjoys the time immensely. Garrus jokes about always having to be flashy that prompts Tali and Joker to compete with their crazy Shepard stories. Jack doesn’t care that he’s unconscious and had a slew of cursing that once somehow ended up with her and Vega in a pissing match between Wrex and Grunt. EDI and Liara brainstorm with Kaidan on how to keep Shepard in bed, then start planning how without a lot of rope.

Those are the easy conversations. No one knows exactly what happened when Shepard fought off indoctrination so Kaidan spends time practicing how he’s going to say Anderson is dead. Already buried too, Kaidan had been dragged to the funeral he’s sure the man would have hated. It’s the first of many, even if the reapers rarely left behind bodies. There are still millions unaccounted for and after the first of the team starts rebuilding Kaidan spends more hours in the hospital room telling stories about his parents. People still visit but after three months it’s mostly spent in silence listening to the equipment and standing on the edge of retreat and rebuilding. 


End file.
